Jacques Villeneuve to race in ARX with Subaru in Canada

Subaru Rally Team USA has announced that 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve will drive its third entry at the Americas Rallycross round at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in Canada next weekend.

Villeneuve will be the third different driver to race the Vermont Sports Car-led team’s third car this season after David Higgins at Silverstone and Travis Pastrana at Circuit of the Americas.

“Jacques Villeneuve is a global motorsport icon, and Subaru is excited to welcome him to Americas Rallycross behind the wheel of a WRX STI,” said William Stokes, Motorsports Manager for Subaru of America. “With his local background and tremendous success in American racing, Jacques will be a thrill for both Canadian and US fans.”

Villeneuve’s last rallycross outing came in 2014 when he competed in a partial season driving a Peugeot 208 for Albatec Racing. His penultimate event was at GP3R where he won a qualifying race but failed to progress to the semi-finals due to a mechanical issue.

His best results were a pair of fourteenth places in Norway and Belgium that year.

“Trois-Rivieres has always felt like my motorsports home, so it’s once again a pleasure to be back,” said Villeneuve. “Rallycross has grown exponentially since I’ve last raced these amazing cars, so it’s good to be part of a sport on the rise.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to be racing a works’ Subaru and will do everything in my power to help the team in its Americas Rallycross endeavour.”

Villeneuve will be the second former F1 driver to compete in ARX after Scott Speed, and the third to compete on the World Rallycross package this season after Speed and Alexander Wurz.

Dominik Wilde is a professional motorsport and motoring writer that has covered events in both the UK and USA. His main focus for the Checkered Flag is covering Americas Rallycross and Nitro Rallycross.